Friday, July 4, 2014

So, Free! Season 2 is just air and my FB wall is filled with it.
Nothing wrong with that, I like watching Free! and I enjoy the first season.
Before that, a friend show me Senran Kagura.
It's a game on PS Vita, and I think it's pretty good.
The gameplay is nice, and I always enjoy action.
But then it's start getting weird... clothes rip, breast bouncing and so on.
Then I realize... FAN SERVICE!

Just like Free! who offers "subtle" fan service for girls, Senran Kagura also have fan service for guys.
I look back again then notice Queen's Blade...
Well, sure... Free! have fan service, but nothing like... ripping clothes until they only wear underwear!
Then again, guys in video games have more "moral" then the girls in video games (especially in Japanese games).
The girls in Senran Kagura and Queen's Blade have no problem fighting around almost naked.
Dead or Alive, thankfully, "only" limited to sexy clothes and bouncing breast.
....... But maybe because us girls just feel disturbed when seeing guys fighting wearing only underwear? ^^;

Is fan service really necessary to sell a game?
It's true that most gamer are usually male, and nothing sell more to male than sexual attraction, right?
Well, I guess that depends on each person...
For me, well... maybe because I am a girl, seeing all those bouncing is really irritating...
Then again I don't really find a lot of fan service for girls in video games, most of the fan service is limited to good looking characters.

I ask again, is fan service necessary to sell a game?
Unfortunately, the answer is YES.
Let's admit it, there's too many games and gamer are starting to get fewer.
Most of them move either to mobile or PC, while handheld or console is starting to get left behind.
Because there's too many games, of course the publisher have to make the game looks interesting enough.
Good story and gameplay sometimes is not enough to attract more gamer to buy their games.
So they need more attractive element....
Considering that most gamer are male, of course they decided to sell the one thing that attract guys the most... which is, FEMALE.

Attract the gamer first, so they buy the game and (hopefully) they will enjoy the game itself.
Or they can release the game, and sell the sexy DLC costume later on...
You might say that it doesn't work, but at least it works for Dead or Alive series.
Otherwise, why they keep the DLC costume going?
Those costume are not cheap, but they still sell.

The same thing can be said for anime, of course.
Put big breast girls, tsundere and any other -dere for fan service, add with some emo story, and most of the times, it will sell.
For girls, put a bunch of good looking guys with -dere variation, flash some hugs between guys, show some skin, and most of the time it will sell as well.
Whether I like it or not, fan service do sell well.
And as long as the developer can keep on making great game (or anime), I guess I am willing to bear with the fan service things....